I've noticed that in my works, there are many scenes involving characters dreams. For example, I use dreams often to convey a psychological state of the character, have him relieve important events, memories or discover things about themselves and others. Dreams can serve as a plot device as well since they can easily have a supernatural meaning. Characters could have visions/premonitions in their dreams, for example. The possibilities are endless. The only concern which I have is that I may have been overdoing the dream scenes in the novel I'm currently working on. What's your opinion?
I think it would make for an unique trait that your story has. You tell your stories through dreams, just like how others may tell stories through diaries. I don't think it's a bad thing but becareful not to get too into it because then it might change the plot of the story to something you didn't intend for.
Good for you for catching that! If you feel that it's overdone it probably is. I just finished reading a book where the main character smokes, she smokes a lot. I almost put the book down because it was overdone. I wanted to yell at the author, Okay I get it she smokes! Let's get back to the story.
If your dream sequences are only "a plot device", then obviously you have too many of the same plot device and that may get tedious to read. If you're doing something specific with those dreams, then it's another matter but it's not possible to judge a book without reading it, so I have no idea
Well, it's not like I put dreams in every scene. Whenever my character is dreaming, he/she is going through an emotional upheaval of a sort. I use dreams to relieve certain memories from the character's past and tell important things about them. Often the dreams are used to move the plot forward, so I'm not using dream scenes as fillers. There's always a specific context in which the dreams are put. An example: in the most recent dream scene (which is also the closing scene of the chapter) the POV relieves important memories which tell the reader a lot about his past but the memories are intertwined with a paranormal experience that plays an important part in the overall plot.
It sounds interesting to me, but as mentioned above, if it’s getting tiresome as a plot device maybe you can shelve the theme for a while and use the idea in the future, as perhaps the main concept for a different piece? A story relayed through dreams could be a great way to write surreal or symbolic fiction. It might be an idea to research dream interpretation to get some inspiration, for example I understand there is a lot about this subject in the field of Jungian Psychology.
It was just a loose concept. But I don't see why not. It would be a challenge to write but if the plot unfolded within those dreams then it wouldn't be a problem. But equally the character could spend more hours awake than actually in the dreams, perhaps trying to make sense of his/her visions, agonising over how much they can really trust what seemed so profoundly true within the dreams. I think that concept would intrigue me, but then I read Murakami, Neil Gaiman and a shit ton of fantasy, so I probably just really dig symbolism and speculative fiction.
My advice: make sure the meaning of the dream fits with the rest of your story. Dreams are symbolic and metaphorical and there meaning can be slippery. Make sure you know exactly what you are saying. I say this because I wrote a piece that contained a dream that IMO was well written but I had to scrap the dream because the meaning of the dream diddnt fit in with the rest of the piece. On a side note I have been reading Jungian psychology recently and his ideas are fascinating I highly recommend them.
Most people aren't interested in hearing about other people's dreams in real life. They are really only interesting to the person who had the dream (for the most part). I think you have to be careful that the same thing isn't happening in your novel where these dreams are more interesting to you than they will be for readers. I want to read about dreams less than I want to hear about them, meaning I could do without either. It also sounds like these dreams may be a way to make your story more convenient when it comes to making sense. But for most of us dreams mean little to nothing. I think making them mean more than that in a novel is going to be hard. And the more dreams there are and the more your story relies on these dreams, I imagine readers like myself would quickly lose interest.
As I mentioned earlier, I use dreams for revealing the inner life of characters, their fears, memories, things from their past. Dreams are one of the best ways to explore the inner working of the human psyche. It's enough to note that the content of dreams plays a big role in psychoanalysis, for example. Still, I don't use dreams and dreaming only for the sake of it. In the last chapter I wrote, the crucial elements of the novel plot were revealed to a character in a dream, through the use of symbolism and metaphors.
Dreams seem to come in so many shapes and sizes. One night I was stranded on a wooden platform surrounded by dinosaurs in a burning forest, the next night elephants were trying to steal my strawberries. Crafty buggers. I guess if you're writing dream sequences there's an immense range for your imagination to explore, and you need not be guided by concerns about coherence - in the waking sense of the word. Naked Lunch, for me, unfolded like a dream; took me three attempts but in the end I really enjoyed it. Difficult to tell, at this stage, whether your final product will appeal to others, but hopefully you'll enjoy creating it all the same. Happy writing
I so want to enjoy that book, but I couldn’t get on with it. I’ve only made two attempts though... maybe it needs a third.
